Six Arrested For Selling Chinese Gear To Military As 'Made In America' (arstechnica.com) 95
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: In August 2018, an Air Force service member noticed something strange about a body camera being used by security personnel at an Air Force base: Chinese characters on the screen. A subsequent investigation found numerous indications that the camera -- and two dozen others in the same shipment -- had been made in China. Investigators found three telling logos in the camera's firmware: an Air Force Logo, the logo of the Chinese company that made the camera, and the logo of China's ministry of public security. Forensic analysis indicated that all three images had been loaded on the camera at the same time by someone in a Chinese time zone. This suggested that not only was the camera made in China, but the Chinese knew that the body camera would be shipped to an Air Force facility.
How did a Chinese-made digital camera wind up at a US Air Force base? In a criminal complaint unsealed Thursday, federal prosecutors blamed Aventura, a New York-based company that has been fraudulently re-selling Chinese-made gear for more than a decade. On Thursday, six of the company's founders and senior officials were arrested and charged with fraud and other crimes. [...] [S]ince 2006, the feds say, Aventura has been buying Chinese-made cameras, metal detectors, and other products, slapping "Made in America" logos on them, and re-selling them in the United States -- to customers including U.S. government agencies who are legally prohibited from buying such items.
How did a Chinese-made digital camera wind up at a US Air Force base? In a criminal complaint unsealed Thursday, federal prosecutors blamed Aventura, a New York-based company that has been fraudulently re-selling Chinese-made gear for more than a decade. On Thursday, six of the company's founders and senior officials were arrested and charged with fraud and other crimes. [...] [S]ince 2006, the feds say, Aventura has been buying Chinese-made cameras, metal detectors, and other products, slapping "Made in America" logos on them, and re-selling them in the United States -- to customers including U.S. government agencies who are legally prohibited from buying such items.
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Who quoted Fox News? Nobody.
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Right, because he didn't . . . you know what? Try researching the issue. You'll appreciate what you find if you learn on your own, instead of having it given to you by someone with whom you obviously have disagreement. Just let it be known: they should have seen this arrest coming from a mile off, and they certainly could have done more to at least make him clean up his act in public.
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The refuge of the person who cant admit they are wrong.
Well done.
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Not even close. It's all there, laid out for you, if you do the research. I already left some breadcrumbs. Follow those.
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In fact I'll help you. Start here (it's a cache, and it might expire, so sorry if it doesn't work for you):
https://webcache.googleusercon... [googleusercontent.com]
change them with Espionage or treason (Score:5, Interesting)
change them with Espionage or treason
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Treason is the only crime defined in the Constitution. It is so hard to get a treason conviction that fewer than 20 people have EVER been so convicted.
And no, this doesn't meet the requirements....
Re:charge them with Espionage or treason (Score:3)
What they did is no different than what Ames or Walker did, compromise national security for a buck.
Life without parole or do what China does ... carve them up for body parts [sciencealert.com].
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Like all the people who use treason when talking about Trump, read the legal definition first.
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Except Trump is taking action against American interest at the behest of a enemy nation. They more data collected, the more apparent that is.
So, yes, that's treason. Literally treason. Just like Reagan commit treason and Oliver North committed treason.
Re-branding goods is not treason
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Re-branding goods so a foreign enemy can spy on your military bases unbeknownst isn't aiding and abiding the enemy? Sounds like a betrayal of trust to me. That's treason.
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I'm pretty sure this was about ripping off Uncle Sam and not some vast spy network.
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Good point. Our government really is a business and you don't rip off Uncle Sam. That's why this whole show got started. So some rich folks could stop paying taxes to England.
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I wasn't aware congress had declared war on any nation.
Re:change them with Espionage or treason (Score:4, Insightful)
This isn't treason. They where aiding the enemy.
President selling arms to the enemy? treason. Oliver North selling arms to the enemy, treason.
Buying shit from china and re branding country of origin? not treason.
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I will admit that it may or may not fall under the legal definition of treason -- I'm not a laywer but I know enough to know that treason is probably well-defined over now hundreds of years of case law -- but it at least reasonably falls under the dictionary definition of treason. They provided aid to a foreign power's efforts to spy on the United
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Re:where is what happens when you don't roll your (Score:5, Interesting)
There must already be an established US chain of military manufacture.
There is. And these contractors could be invited to bid for an Air Force base security camera RFQ. But since this is a rather small quantity the cost will be high. And they always seem to lose to a little outfit in New York that has some sort of cost advantage. Gee, I wonder what that might be?
The problem is: We don't build enough stuff in this country to keep the volume up and cost down. Sure, the government and military can afford the more expensive domestic stuff. But that difference can be exploited by unscrupulous distributors to buy cheap stuff, re-label it and sell it just low enough to win bids.
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The USAF worked hard to trim down non combat career fields post 9/11 specifically so they could have more combat ready personnel while not going over limits on active soldiers. They outsource technical things for this reason.
Source: My AFSC was rolled into a broader general one. I helped train contracted replacement who now get paid a lot more to do the same job.
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Without profit b involved, and an existing salaried labor force n the form of enlisted men and officers , with skill ranges covering everything involved, The military can operate with less overhead if they don't have to do any business with external agencies. They have a huge labor force on retainer.
To me that's a lot of words without any meaning. I am trying to design a chip. How many military designers have the necessary experience and skill to design chips? Bear in mind that not many civilians engineers have experience in the private sector with designing chips in the millions of units per year as this skillset is specialized. Yet somehow you want military personnel to be able design them when at best they will make thousands of them. Labor != skill. You can't throw more people at something for eve
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Yes.
Although it would be better to buy a older fab and hire people with a security clearance to work it.
Plan is absolutely feasible becasue they would have other customers, it doesn't not need to be the latest fabs. Is you can get them at 1/10 to 1/20th the cost.
I don't think you understand the risk we are taking with out of country sourcing.
On the plus side, it would create 10,000 new jobs.
We could pay for it by cutting 1 aircraft type we are spending billions on but the military does not want or need.
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.Although it would be better to buy a older fab and hire people with a security clearance to work it.
Bahahahaha. Do you know what it takes to get a security clearance for hundreds of engineers you'll need for a chip? Plus that's not what he proposed. He didn't propose contracting out the necessary skill. He proposed the military outright make every single component in that engineers must be all from the military.
Plan is absolutely feasible becasue they would have other customers, it doesn't not need to be the latest fabs. Is you can get them at 1/10 to 1/20th the cost.
In what world they have customers? I need a to have a chip designed. To use the military fab, I'd have to go through a ton of security clearances just to get a meeting with the engineers. If I buy
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What you are promoting would:
a) Limit new ideas (elimination of competition)
b) Run counter to the concepts of free market policies
c) Increased costs due to lack of manufacturing scale
d) Support the existing Military-Industrial complex
Generally the best solution is a justifiable level of paranoia and check everything (audit vendors and their products). Where the cost of compliance and/or consequences is still far too high then work those items in a closed shop environment. Even with a closed shop environment
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e) Cripple profits by limiting mass fraud, inflated profit margins, sub-par products, know failed products and re-branding foreign products.
The inevitable failure of the lowest tender process with it's built in fraud, that has repeatedly failed not just once but repeatedly year in and year out, hundreds even thousands of time.
Greed must be served first, else why bother playing war in the first place if not to serve greed.
Do you know man never made it to the moon because gubment done not did it unposiball
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a) The military has always done research into newer and more efficient ways of killing the enemy, and keeping the good guys safer. So no such a scheme wouldn't limit new ideas. The private sector is free to continue to do new things, as is the military.
b) The free market has never applied to military procurement. If it did the US would be flying Airbus tankers, but of course we know we can't do that.
c) You mean like how the current system leads to $1000 hammers and toilet seats?
d) That wouldn't change,
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c) It' not really true. Those are the impact of specialty low produced items. Retooling is very expensive.
You want us to retool and make you 1 bolt? that bolt will cost you $500,000 dollars. You want us to retool to make a million bolts? well that will cost you $501,000
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a) bullshit. No one is saying only the US make chips or dictate innovation.
b) bullshit. There is still a free market.
c) Scale would increase with time.
d) bullshit. Removing profit motivation from management INCREASES the MIC.
Also, it would bring back form of manufacturing to America,so middle class jobs.
"closed shop environment you still need to be vigilant "
True. still more secure then buying critical shit for foreign nations.
Re: where is what happens when you don't roll your (Score:1)
Wow that was crazy stupid of them (Score:2)
Penalty. (Score:5, Insightful)
China would execute them if roles were reversed.
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It's actually pretty simple.
In one scenario (United States), you've murdered someone. So you get a trial, and a defense attorney. A prosecutor presents evidence. You and your lawyer present rebuttal. The jury convicts or acquits. In the event of a conviction, there is a sentencing hearing. Then you're either sentenced to life in prison or execution. In the event that you are to be executed, multiple appeals can be made to stall or stay the execution. Most executions take years.
In another scenario (P
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He isn't entirely mentally defective, though. It's much easier to administer capital punishment when there is no due process. He isn't referring to the case-at-hand but instead referring to the hypothetical presented by Kaenneth wherein someone found to be selling shoddy/questionable gear to the Chinese military might receive swift and harsh punishment without due process.
China, in particular, is very efficient and effective at handing out death sentences without anything more than a few show trials. Exa
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I like that in your scenarios the system worse 100% perfect an no one is every falsely convicted.
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Who said anything about the system working perfectly? Nobody. All I said was, evidence is presented, rebuttal is offered, and then there is a verdict. It can be the wrong verdict. Due process isn't perfect. Stop looking for things that are not there.
Ever heard of the USA PATRIOT act? (Score:2)
Yeah, the US merely puts them in gulags without trial, lawyer or calling their family, for torture until "natural death".
So much more civilized!
You're all the same.
Re: Ever heard of the USA PATRIOT act? (Score:2)
Who needs jury trials when we've got coerced false confessions?!
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Yes, and donate their organs.
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"They also use the metric systems and guns are not a right to have."
While those are great positives; it doesn't make up for the organ harvesting and surveillance.
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China would execute them if roles were reversed.
And? That doesn't make it okay, not in China nor in the USA.
They should sue Belleville boots, too (Score:2)
I bought some Belleville desert boots once that the fabric ripped out of immediately when I put them on. Pity the poor fucker whose boots come apart in combat because Belleville wanted to save two cents on fabric.
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The latest Ken Burns docu-series on the Vietnam war touches on this a bit, too, though related to the M-16. One soldier told the story of a fire-fight that went south for the Americans, resulting in quite a few dead. When they went back afterwards, they found that a lot of the M-16s of the dead were jammed. The solider telling the story painted it as common knowledge among the troops that this happened.
I'm not a war hawk by any means, but sending soldiers into combat situations with faulty equipment? No
Congress has some serious work to do (Score:2)
If I have learned anything in the past few years (decades) of government scandal and fuck-ups it's that congress has some REAL work to do in legislation.
We need bi-partisan committees to look at, and close some serious loopholes in the way our government operates.
Again this should be a non-partisan objective.
The definitions of treason are far too narrow.
The president should not be "above the law" no matter what party affiliation.
Politicians and leaders intentionally lying and misleading the American people
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Beyond the scandals, how the military industrial complex operates, is just WTF. And all 'legal' (as long as you don't pull stuff like this).
ITAR pushes companies to do stupid things to fit through the loopholes. Once you outsource things enough times and push things through enough 'requirements' you end up with slow moving and inefficient everything.
But fire and brimstone come down if we use non-volotile memory (nvm). We can't even record a bit because it technically counts as 'data logging'. Which "The Cli
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I agree with everything stated above. To provide another example, one that most lay people are familiar with. The rule "leaves of three, let them be" is stupid, there are many clovers and other flowers totally safe to touch that have 3 leaves. However, to be certain of avoiding poison ivy... leaves of three, let them be; be safe from one's own ignorance.
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Then midlevel managers need need to accept 'no' as an answer. You don't get to do a warm restart without keeping some of your controller states/tunes.
They're asking for features that automotive/industrial have had for some time but the reason they get those features is because of nvm.
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"The president should not be "above the law" no matter what party affiliation."
Contrary to what some lawyers opinion is, the president isn't.
From the constitution:
"The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors."
How can the president get convicted if he is above the law?
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How can the president get convicted if he is above the law?
The problem is here:
other high Crimes and Misdemeanors
"High Crimes and Misdemeanors" does not just mean "really serious crimes." A "high crime" is specifically one that could only have been committed by abusing the office of the president. The president could, in fact, go steal some milk from a convenience store, and you might be able to charge him with theft, but that is not enough to remove him from office.
Like intentionally undermining the national security of the United States for personal gain? Would that be high enough? Extortion? Bribery?
Time to stop importing from China (Score:5, Insightful)
In addition, these ppl should be charged with treason, or even better, aiding and abetting the enemy.
The enemy? (Score:2)
You mean "what the market will bear" capitalists? (Yep, those are mostly Chinese. ;)
Or religious nutjobs? (Muslim as well as average American)
Or perhaps you go by who kills the most Americans? (US military; cars; ...)
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If you stop importing from China you fuck yourselves. You don't have the manufacturing or supply chains to just make everything locally. I suppose you could spend a decade or two on a massive development programme but it seems like a rather extreme reaction to some deliberately mis-labelled parts, especially when the criminals are Americans.
There are better ways to handle this than cutting off your nose to spite your face.
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It is LONG past time to quit importing from China
Hey everyone, we want you to pay double the cost for everything you currently enjoy, because AMERICA! Wait what? You're price conscious? Damn.
What you're doing is nothing short of virtue signalling. The market itself has chosen and Made in the USA has been declared to rarely be worth the money. Sure it becomes worth it for national security, and process safety (seriously don't buy valve bodies from China). It may seem worth it when states heavily subsidies industries and the government helps bail them out t
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In addition, these ppl should be charged with treason, or even better, aiding and abetting the enemy.
What enemy? When did Congress declare war on China?
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just importing the wrong things (Score:2)
Will be too many for prison though. Maybe get China to build some re-education centers instead. I hear theirs can hold millions. Teach those Americans that it's patriotic to buy overpriced American crap instead of cheap Chinese crap.
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Indeed. At least that way, we can be sure only American companies will collect all that juicy telemetry data.
Can you still buy US made cameras? (Score:1)
Every time we have a story about US tariffs on China, we get lots of comments modded up about how the "supply chain" means that all electronic goods now have to be manufactured in Asia.
Was the slashdot groupthink wrong?!
No. (Score:2)
Ok, the NSA *does* have a fab. But that one apparently only makes chips for foreign "markets". ;)
Wouldn't it be hilarious, if those Chinese-made cameras actually came from the NSA? :D
Made in America (Score:3)
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All they needed to do is to _not claim_ it was made in the US then (and I suspect lower the price by like 10x). But no, they prefer the federal, pound-me-in-the-ass prison.
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Just to note, Clinton did not give China MFN status. Clinton extended the existing MFN status for China. Congress made this permanent in 2000.
Instead of accepting the automatic annual renewal, Congress tried to place limitations on China's MFN status in 1991 and 1992 (due to Tiananmen Square), which then-President Bush vetoed, and while the House overruled the veto, the Senate did not have the votes to do so. In 1993, then-President Clinton promised to tie MFN to human rights progress, though he never fo
Common situation (Score:1)